(Reuters) -The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be eliminated in its current form and reconfigured to respond more effectively to natural disasters, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a meeting on reforming FEMA on Wednesday.
Noem’s comments were a restatement of her thinking on FEMA’s future but notable given that FEMA personnel have been deployed to Texas to help in search and rescue efforts following flash floods on July 4 that have killed at least 119 people, with scores more still unaccounted for.
Noem, who chairs the FEMA Review Council, noted that the agency had provided resources and supported the search and recovery efforts in Texas, but criticized the agency for what she called past failures to respond to disasters effectively.
“It has been slow to respond at the federal level,” Noem said. “That is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency.”
Defenders of the agency have said the Trump administration is seeking to politicize a vital agency that helps states both prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes and floods and clean up in the aftermath.
(reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin and David Gregorio)
